Intel is planning to continue making unlocked superclocked X-series processors that we all know as Haswell-E or Sandy Bridge-E.

The next one in line to replace the current Haswell-E series is called Broadwell-E, and this is an eight-core 140W processor. The information comes from Intel's own roadmap and we don't have too many details yet.

Just like the Core i7 5960X, Core i7 5930K and Core-i7 5820K, there will be one unlocked eight-core Broadwell-E X version of Broadwell-E and two six-core K versions. They will all share the same 140W TDP. We know that it is too early to talk about official branding, but Core i7 6960X sounds about right.

Broadwell E will use the LGA 2011-v3 socket and the current X99 PCH chipset. We guess that there will be a bios update and that the new Broadwell-E parts should work on existing X99 motherboards that you can already buy today. The platform relies on DDR4 memory, just like Haswell-E. We expect it will start with the $999 eight-core flagship (X version) and go down to about $400 for the slowest six-core part.

If you are in market for one, start saving right now, as Broadwell-E should launch roughly a year from now.

AMD plans to retire quite a few Zambezi desktop FX cores and replace them with superior Vishera cores. The transition is already happening in Q4 2012 and it will be complete next year.

As we reported here, AMD plans to retire FX 8150 eight-core, FX 6200 six-core and FX 4170 quad-core chips in Q1 2013 and it plans to retire an additional four processors in the following quarter. The AMD FX 8120, a 3.1GHz octa-core with turbo capability of 4GHz, 125W and 7MB of cache, retires in Q2 2013. AMD also plans to retire the six-core FX 6100 clocked at 3.3GHz to 3.9GHz with turbo, at 95W TDP.

Not even quad-cores will be spared as FX 4130 with 3.8 to 3.9GHz clock, four cores, 4MB cache and 125W TDP as well as the FX 4100 with 3.6GHz to 3.8GHz with turbo, will reach its end of life in Q2 2013.

They all get replaced by FX 8350 and FX 8320 in the eight-core 125W market, FX 6300 in 95W six core market and FX 4300 in 95W quad-core market that are available since late October.

On Friday, AMD announced that it has successfully taped out its much delayed Bulldozer architecture and hopes to begin sampling working chips with customers shortly. The company's new high-end architecture will be fabricated on the 32nm process at Globalfoundries and is expected to sample throughout the second half of 2010.

We recently reported that AMD's 32nm Zambezi eight-core processor, the first to release in the Bulldozer lineup, will use a modified AM3 r2 socket and should feature 8MB of L3 cache, should support DDR3 1866MHz speeds, and should be paired with the Scorpio platform. The company has also stated that Interlagos is the server codename for its 32nm, sixteen-core Opteron 6000 series processors based on socket G34 which will be paired with the Maranello platform.

According to an unofficial source familiar with the company's server plans, AMD intends to begin mass production of its 12-core and 16-core Interlagos server processors in the first half of 2011. A source at XbitLabs has noted that Interlagos features two 32nm SOI chips codenamed Valencia with six or eight cores on the same substrate.Other versions of Bulldozer with reduced power consumption and increased performance for the desktop market were planned to be produced in the second half of 2011.

"In the second quarter of this year we also taped out the first 32nm product based on our new high-performance Bulldozer CPU core. We plan to begin sampling our Bulldozer based server and desktop processors in the second half of this year and remain on track for 2011 launches. These new processors will deliver significant performance improvements to the AMD platform," said Dirk Meyer, chief executive officer of AMD, during the quarterly conference call with financial community.

To reiterate on the technology development process behind this fabrication stage, the tape out on Bulldozer means AMD has finished the artwork for the photomask of the circuit architecture and has sent it to GlobalFoundries for manufacturing into a physical chip package. Back in October 2009, we hinted that AMD's new architecture should be coming in the second part of 2011. In perspective, this is the company's only hope to catch up with Intel as it continues the Tick-Tock development cycle and replaces its Nehalem architecture with 32nm Sandy Bridge in early 2011. However, nothing is made specifically clear, and the mass production schedule doesn't necessarily coincide with the official launch schedule. This means that the multi-core chips have an equal chance of coming out in the first and second halves of next year. In the silicon manufacturing industry, the average time from tape out to general release for CPUs is about 9 to 12 months, and with a tape out in mid-July 2010, Bulldozer is well on its way to a Q2 or Q3 release in 2011.

Meanwhile, the company has also announced that it will dramatically switch the timing of its dual-core 40nm Ontario and 32nm Llano Fusion production ramps due to slower than anticipated progress of its 32nm yield curve. "Llano production shipments are still expected to occur in the first half of next year," said Dirk Meyer, chief executive officer of AMD, during a conversation with financial analysts. "We have seen the rate of yield leaning below our plans on 32nm, [and] we will take a bit more time to work on the 32nm yields up the curve. So, the effective change to our internal plans on Llano amounts to a couple of months," said Mr. Meyer. More on that here.

AMD is expected to shed some more light on its upcoming Bulldozer and Bobcat architectures at the Hot Chips conference hosted at Stanford University in August.

We had a chance to take a look at some of AMD's future plans and we can confirm that the company plans to continue selling Triple cores, at least until some point in 2011.

There are quite a few reasons - in simple sales language, three are better than two. Furthermore, three cores are quite popular for the fact that many motherboards allow you to simply unlock the forth core, which is a nice bonus. Therefore, people are buying three core CPUs and simply unlocking the last disabled core.

Intel doesn’t care about three core CPUs and it stays away from it, but both companies are quite enthusiastic about its six core offer - apparently six cores are ok, despite the fact that you will use all six cores only on extremely rare occasions. Of course we are talking about desktop users as server and workstation guys usually need as many cores as they can get.

The future of CPUs is quite boring to be honest, it's simply "the more the merrier" as 2011 is set to bring many eight cores to the desktop market. The good thing about this is that 2011's eight cores will actually come with more efficient 32nm cores from both camps, AMD and Intel. This might make them more attractive, but four cores should be enough for just about 99 percent of the normal usage.

We cannot confirm that there will be a three core Bulldozer based CPU, but the quad core Bulldozer is in plans, which makes the triple core quite possible and highly likely. It will be a management / sales decision as from technical side, Bulldozer can be a three core, just like any other quad core.